Chairs of excellence to strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of research

The chair of excellence system is one of the tools created by CY Initiative to strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of research. It helps develop scientific potential and visibility, by attracting top-level researchers to cutting-edge themes.

The objective is twofold: on the one hand to strengthen the key scientific fields in which the Initiative already has significant visibility and on the other hand to bring out skills and centers of excellence in new fields, complementary to the scientific strategy of CY Initiative and contributing to the development of academic excellence.

In September 2018, CY Initiative launched its first 5 chairs of excellence highlighting the Initiative's three key areas of expertise: social sciences (in particular management, economics and finance), modeling sciences (especially mathematics and computer science) and heritage sciences.
  • A chair in Dynamic Systems, led by the UMR AGM (Mathematics - CY Cergy Paris University-CNRS) in partnership with the mathematics department of the University of Warwick.  LEMASSON Etienne, French, University of Bristol, UK
  • A chair in Economics, led by the UMR THEMA (Economics - CY Cergy Paris University-CNRS). CHAPELLE Guillaume, French, Sciences Po Phd, Post-doc IEB Barcelona, Spain. 
  • A chair in Learning in Autonomous Intelligent Systems with a small footprint (ASIA), UMR ETIS (Informatics - CY Cergy Paris University-ENSEA-CNRS). CHAFII Marwa, Franco-Moroccan, Technical University (TU) Dresden, Germany.
  • A "Behavioral Strategy and Organizational Dynamics" chair led by the management department of ESSEC Business School
  • A chair in Financial Reporting Complexity and Sustainable Business Research led by the accounting department of ESSEC Business School
Three recruitments have already been made: Marwa Chafii for the ASIA chair, Etienne Le Masson for the AGM chair of excellence. The total of the 5 funded chairs represents a commitment of € 377,000 for a 4-year period.

In 2019, 5 new 4-year chairs were created:
  • Junior Excellence Chair in Financing Innovation, Finance Department of ESSEC Business School. CONTI Rafaelle, Italian, Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Portugal.
  • Junior Excellence Chair in Data Science, Department of Information Systems, Decision Sciences and Statistics of ESSEC Business School. NDAOUD Mohamed, French, University of Southern California, USA.
  • Senior Chair of Excellence in Neurosciences and Robotics, ETIS Laboratory. CANAMERO Lola, Spanish, Reader at the Hertfordshire University, UK.
  • THEMA Senior Chair of Excellence in Economics. DE PALMA André, French, ENS, France.
  • Senior Chair of Excellence in Archeology and Heritage, Agora Laboratory. LEHOERFF Anne, French, Université de Lille, France.
Eight recruitments have already been made and 2 recruitments are in progress. The total of the 10 funded chairs represents a commitment of 3,1M€ for a 4-year period.

Thanks to these CY Initiative chairs of excellence, the Initiative members will be able to welcome very high-level professor-researchers in an academic environment conducive to the emergence of new ideas. This will consolidate excellence in research and its virtuous effect on teaching, by bringing students in contact with the most cutting-edge and recent knowledge.